Incidents like the protests around Shell’s disposal of the Brent Spar oil rig have caused many businesses to fear NGOs – worrying how they might attack their business. But as companies seek to profile their environmental credentials, they are finding their most ferocious watchdogs aren’t NGOs. They’re competitors.
In a recent example, Clorox (which had launched GreenWorks, a line of products environmentally superior to the products they were meant to replace) advertised these products as working just as well as “the Leading All-Purpose Cleaner”. Well, the company that manufactures a “Leading All-Purpose Cleaner”, S.C. Johnson & Son Inc., challenged this assertion to the US National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus. The NAD found in S.C. Johnson’s favour, and Clorox is having to rework their advertising – a costly endeavour in terms of both money and reputation.
Ironically, it was Clorox’s entry into the green products field, and their partnership with the Sierra Club (a leading US Environmental group) that inspired S.C. Johnson to launch its own line of environmentally preferable products…
The moral of the story? Keep your claims specific and verifiable or your competitor will eat your lunch while you eat your words.
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